Not trying to be a prick, but what exactly are these other things at stake? I hear people say academics. I say okay, please explain, and they either ignore the post or say it is too complicated to explain on a message board or something like that. I know Barron and a lot of the faculty are proud of the ACC affiliation as are a number of posters here. I just don't see what tangible benefit there is to it.

I am genuinely interested. I'd love to hear what it is.

Academic funding, the ACC has a consortium which was just started a few years ago with the eventual goal of becoming like the Big 10's. Basically the goal is to share academic research and funding. If you're associated with the Duke's of the world that become very beneficial.

University gifting. Will changes in the athletic affiliation affect Booster gifting? Will our donors, who primarily aren't located in the midwest and are located up and down the east coast, still contribute to the program if they never have any interaction with it? Will that have a side-effect of academic gifting?

What are the positives? Increased football ticket sales? Increased donations?

It's not as simple as "we'll make X dollars more per year being in X conference because of TV money", but these are definitely things to consider.

Sorry, I was speaking more to the SEC than the Big XII which in that circumstance it's a no brainer to me, but the SEC does have a similar arrangement... and it only took the ACC 20 years to get this one going.